Though well acted and never uninteresting, Light Sleeper is far less intense than most of Schrader's work and further diluted by an unrealistic ending.

| May 9, 2023

From that opening use of “World on Fire”, Been’s vocals and melancholic, somber tones feel as rooted in the essence of Light Sleeper as Dafoe’s razor-sharp bone structure, or those heaps of trash bags lining the sidewalks.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Sep 23, 2022

...an erratic yet predominantly satisfying effort from Schrader.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 30, 2022

American filmmakers have a weakness for presenting a shoot-out as either the precursor of redemption or redemptive in itself; this film falls into the latter group.

| May 20, 2022

The cast is skilfully alert... and Schrader's vision is unencumbered either by sentiment or cynicism.

| Feb 28, 2021

It's good Schrader -- a quiet and gentle portrait of moral squalor among very fashion-conscious people who wear silk scarves and green suede jackets and lunch at Cote Basque.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 28, 2021

A telling, atmospheric portrayal of the life of New York in the hours when most people are sleeping soundly in their cozy beds, not cruising aimlessly through the darkness.

| Feb 28, 2021

The plot and characterization came across as an adolescent fantasy which had entirely missed its mark.

| Jul 24, 2018

A resonant thriller.

| Original Score: B+ | Nov 5, 2014

The movie is smart and sassy and alluring. It's like a gifted impressionist updating his material with wit and brio and respect.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 10, 2014

Light Sleeper is emblematic of an era, and is recommended on that basis and on the excellent quality of it acting.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 9, 2014

It's a failure perhaps, but an honorable failure. If it isn't saved by grace, it has many saving graces.

| Sep 9, 2014

With his deliberate speech patterns and haunted, reptilian good looks, Dafoe is an almost nobly sad presence at the center of the film. There's something wonderfully calm about his performance, and it holds Light Sleeper together.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 9, 2014

Dafoe completely inhabits the character, appearing in virtually every scene and developing a fascinating psychological profile.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 9, 2014

For all of Schrader's capacity for spectacular self-laceration and spiritual agony, Light Sleeper finds him able for the first time to express a certain peacefulness, and the effect is delicate and discreet.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 9, 2014

Crowd pleasing? No. Challenging? You bet.

| Sep 9, 2014

It`s a pretty good little movie, not so insignificantly for the performance of Willem Dafoe as the drug delivery man with a desire for a different life.

| Sep 9, 2014

While Dafoe has made a career of looking wasted, and does cynicism better than anyone around, he too is handicapped by his unsympathetic character and Schrader's clumsily unidiomatic script.

| Sep 9, 2014

Susan Sarandon is so good as Dafoe's boss, and the dialogue is so literate for such a familiar story, that there's a lot to admire -- it's Schrader's best film -- as long as one can get past the transcendental claptrap.

| Sep 9, 2014

Too often, however, the movie is undone by mood-spoiling flaws, among them a gratingly bad rock song that keeps popping up.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 9, 2014